The present invention relates to holders for information carriers used in a retail environment. Such carriers are employed on the front faces of shelves in retail stores to describe the nature of goods displayed, the price of the goods, article numbers and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a holder for an electronic information carrier.
The retail trade has now begun to employ electronic information carriers for displaying the price of goods which are offered for sale and also a variety of other information concerning such goods. Such electronic information carriers include an LCD type unit and are advantageous from the standpoint that the information displayed by the carrier can be changed remotely, such as by infra-red controllers, radio controllers or hard wiring. The letters and digits on the display are clear and distinct and can be readily discerned if the potential purchaser is standing directly in front of the display. However, the display can be difficult to read when the surface of the display defines an acute angle with the line of vision of the viewer.
It is known from conventional information displays, which provide labels and prices that needed to be manually changed, that when the holders are mounted on the front edge of a low shelf or a high shelf, then the display has to be tilted in order to allow the potential purchaser to clearly see the display. To this end, conventional information displays mounted on the front edge of a shelf have been produced in a two piece design so that a forward part could be mounted at different angles in relation to a mounting part.
It is also known that single piece holders can be employed for this purpose. Such holders have been designed for both conventional information displays as well as electronic information carriers. One known single piece holder or channel which can be used in connection with electronic information display carriers has a mounting part and an information carrier receiving part. One of these is provided with a support leg which is pivotally connected to one part and the other part is provided with at least two support elements which are located at different heights. The support elements are intended to receive the free end part of the support leg. This construction enables the viewing angle to be adjusted without needing to separate the mounting part from the holder part.
However, this known holder for electronic information carriers is disadvantageous from the standpoint that it requires a complex extrusion to manufacture the holder. Since the extrusion is complex in shape, it is also expensive and requires a significant amount of plastic material.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved holder for electronic information carriers which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.